Lodi Unified to discuss potential new school

Yahoo

03-05-2025

May 3—After years of parents and teachers calling for a new campus to be built in Lodi, a new school has been proposed on the western side of town.
The Lodi Unified School District Board of Education will get its first glimpse of the proposed Samuel M. Gantner Elementary School at Vine Street and Westgate Drive on Tuesday.
The school, named after the first Lodian killed in World War II, will be located on an 11.5-acre site west of GracePoint Church.
According to Tuesday's staff report, the campus will focus primarily on kindergarten-sixth grades, with the possibility of accommodating seventh- and eighth-grade students, if necessary. The school's capacity would be 850 students. Preschool through third-grade classes would have about 24 students each, while grades 4-6 would have 30 students in each class.
Last year, district officials told the News-Sentinel that the district's student population had dropped around 10% — from 30,000 to less than 27,000 — in recent years.
At that time officials said there were two new school sites ready to develop. One was Gantner and the other site was in North Stockton, west of I-5 in the Spanos Park neighborhood.
Superintendent Neil Young said the district works with both county and city officials to anticipate new developments within the district. He says the growth numbers are used to develop the district's long-range plans and to project future student population.
Behind the name
Gantner was a Lodi High graduate and a young father who was stationed on the USS Arizona at Pearl Harbor when Japanese forces attacked on Dec. 7, 1941.
As planes approached, Gantner raced to his battle station, a 5-inch anti-aircraft gun on the deck. He fired at the attacking planes but was wounded and taken to the ship's hospital.
Soon after arriving, medics noticed he was no longer in the treatment area. He was later seen back at his battle station with his crew, firing at the enemy.
An official citation read, in part: "He maintained an effective fire with his gun, in local control, despite heavy casualties on his gun, bomb hits, exploding ammunition on deck, and serious fires, and was killed at his station."
He was 21. His remains were buried at the Punch Bowl military cemetery in Hawaii.
The board unanimously approved naming the campus after Gantner in 2012.
A destroyer-class escort named in his honor was launched at the Boston Navy Yard on July 23, 1943. The ship was later decommissioned and sold to China. Tuesday's meeting begins at 7 p.m. at the James Areida Education Support Center, 1305 E. Vine St. The meeting will also be livestreamed on the district's YouTube channel.